Sudden warmth melts Winterfest plans

It wasn't quite the Winterfest she was expecting.

Still, Elmhurst resident Bernie Rachus had no qualms Saturday about taking her grandchildren, 3-year-old Makenzie and 4-year-old Jacob, to Lombard's annual winter-themed event in near-60-degree weather.

Nevermind that organizers had to cancel the snowman-building contest, or that a Bozo buckets game had to be played with white Styrofoam balls rather than real snow they had hoped would stick around through the weekend.

"It's better than traveling in the snow and slop," Rachus said. "We went inside and they just did arts and crafts and played with the balloons."

Across the suburbs, organizers of weekend winter-themed events had to either scrap or work around the unseasonably warm weather.

At Lake Villa Township's inaugural Winterfest, organizers had to cancel a human bowling event, where contestants could roll down a hill at some pins in Caboose Park, because there was no snow on the hill.

Dan Venturi, the township's supervisor, said a planned broom hockey game was moved to the parking lot, away from the mushy grass soaked with melted snow.

"We probably had a couple hundred people come out today," he said. "It's probably more than if it was 0 degrees outside, but less than if it was 32."

In Glen Ellyn, members of the local speedskating team spent the morning outside the boathouse at Lake Ellyn waiting to tell anyone who showed up that their weekend speed-skating competition was canceled.

"With all the water forming on top of the ice, people would've just been slipping and falling all around," said Lee Marks, one of the organizers. "We'll be back to try this again next week."